Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1887-01-08


1t wasn't hot day, nor cold day.
nor damp day, but it was an atrocious
day, a ciammy day, an unbearable day,
day that made your clothes stick to
you like poor relations, that brought out
cold sweats on pitchers and Goblets, that
made your back a race-course for con-
temptible little chills and the rest of
your body a target for a thousands in
visible pins and needles, that made the
grasshopper a burden and the dusty, be-
grimed city a pandemonium, that made
solomon Griggs, bachelor, of the firm of
Grlggs, Makem & Co., the great clothing
merchants, shut up his ledger with
bang and start for the country by the
next train, remarking to old Grimesby,
the head clerk. "that the city was
sitting" To which that worthy replied:
$50 it is, but how about the feller that
can't get out of it and must stay to be
chokedY'--a problem which l suspect
our friend of the firm of Griggs, Makem
& Co. troubled his head very little about,
being Just then busy in looking into the
dusty recesses of that picture gallery
which memory furnishes and arranges
for us all, as a single landscape hanging
there. A low house with messy, over
hanging caves, standing on the slope of
green hill, shaded by branching elms,
with level fields stretching off in the
foreground toward the sparkling water
on one side and dusky woods on the
other, and there, dusty, sweating and
tired, Solomon found himself just about
sunset. Out came a ruddy-cheeked,
crni1inrr old 1oIr -, n oar oOI oOroy, 4bot
had attained state of snowy perfection
unknown to city laundresses
"Why, bless me if it isn't little Soil
Why, who'd thought of seeing you"
and she folded the stalwart bearded
man in as warm an embrace as though
he were in reality still the little Sol of
former days.
'And how do you do, Sol Come in
come in; don't stand out there, You
know the little path and the way to the
pantry yet, l dare say. Come in; you
needn start back-its only achel."
'But didn know you had any young
ladies with you. Aunt Hester"
''It's only Rachel, tell you-Rachel
Hart, the seamstress. Are there no
women in your city, that you are afraid
to face little country girlln
''Little indeed, thought Solomon, as
he acknowledged his aunt's somewhat
peculiar introduction-a and not pretty,
either-with large eyes ef that uncertain
gray that sometimes beams darkly blue
and then decpens into brown; with
smooth, low forehead and light brown
hair drawn tightly across each ear, just
revealing its crimson tips; face irregu-
larly featured. and rendered still more
striking by the singular contrast be-
tween its extreme pallor and the intense
ly scarlet lips-the personitication of
neatness, the embodiment of reserve.
IAN odd little person." thought Solo
mon, "but it's none Of my blsinessl"
and disnissing her from his mind, he
proceeded TO the much more important
business of making himself perceptible
at Aunt Hester's tea table.
Solomon did ampe justice to the
snowy bread, golden butter and luscious
Strawberries, and later, as that worthy
was indulging in stroll across the
fields, he lifted up his eyes, and beheld
the little seamstress, whose existence he
had quite forgotten, under a venerable
cherry tree, making desperate efforts to
seize tempting branch on its lowest
boughs-looking almost pretty with her
flushed checks and sparkling eyes.
Now Sol was gallant man-decided
ly the ,preux chcyalIer of the firm Of
Griggs, Makem 5; Co. so that whenever,
as had once CT twice happened, a petti-
coat ventured into the mouldy shades of
that establishment Sol was the man
whom destiny and the other partners Sc.
ectcd to parlcy with the enemy.
Advancing, therefore, with a happy
mixture of confidence and coadesccnsion.
Sol tucked the cherries and was about
to present them when independence in
calic frocll stepped back with crol
Keep them yourself, sir; | don't care
for them
Il thought you wanted them" STAN.
me-cd Sol.
80 did, because they were difficult
to obtain. Had they been on your aunt
table, would not have touched them.
1t is the glow Of triumph that gives n
pleasure TO its zest. at the cherries
yourself, aud good evening, sir"
''stop momentm said Sol, not lit
tie astonshed; ''ihat isl mean-per.
NIT me to accompany youw
"No, you would expect me to enter.
tain you, and that would be too much
troubien
"But If, instead, | should entertain
your
"Yon cannot" '----sssaSssa -
"Why"
"Yon could tell me nothing new. You
are only crucible for converting bales
Of cloth into the precious ore that all the
world goes mad after No doubt you
are all very well in your way, but there